St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-09-10

winter. She was one who under
stood your affairs without blaming
you. You looked upon what you
thought was thin, weak woman's arm
holding you up; but while you looked al
that arm, there came into the feeble mus
Giles of it the strength Of the eternal God
No Gliding. No fretting. No telling
you about the beautiful house of her
father, from which you brought her ten
twerty, or thirty years ago. You said
"Well, this is the happiest day OF my life
l am glad have got from under my bur
den. MY wife don't care-I don't care. "
At the moment you were utterly ex-
| hausted, God sent Deborah to meet
the host of the Amalekites and
scatter them like chatf over the
plain. There are sometimes women
who sit reading sentimental novels, and
| who wish that they had some grand field
in which to display their Christian pow
ers 0, what grand and glorious things
they could do if they only had an oppor-
| tunity! My sister, you need not wait
| for any such time A crisis will come in
| your affairs There will be ThermOpy-
| lac in your own household, where God
| will tell you to stand. There are scores
and hundreds of households to-day
where as much bravery and courage are
| demanded of woman as was exhibited
by Grace Darling, or Marie AntOinette,
or Joan of Arc.
Again: | remark, it is woman's right
to bring to us the kingdom of Heaven.
1t is easier for a woman to be a Christian
than for man. Why? You say she is
weaker. No. Her heart is more respOn-
sive to the pleadings of Divine love. She
is in vast ma jority. The fact that she
can more easily become a Christian |
prove by the statement that three-fourths
of the members of the churches in all
ChriStendOm are women. SO God ap-
points them to be the chief agencies for
bringing this world back to God. | may
stand here and say the soul is immortal.
There is man who will refute it. | may
stand here and say we are lost and
undone without Christ. There is man
who will refute it. | may stand here and
say there will be Judgment Day after
awhile. Ionder is some one who will
refute it. But a Christian woman in
Christian household, living in the faith
and the consistency of Christs Gospel
nobody can refute that. The greatest
sermons are not preached on celebrated
platforms; they are preached with an
audience of two or three, and in private
home life. A consistent, cOnsecrated
Christian service is an unanSWerable
demonstration of Gods truth. A sailor
came slipping down the ratline one
night, as though something had hap
pened, and the sailors cried: What's
the matter?" He said: my mothers
prayers haunt me like a ghost" Home
influences, consecrated, Christian home
influences, are the mightiest of all in
tluences upon the soul. There are men
here to-day who have maintained their
integrity, not because they were any
better naturally than some other people,
but because there were home influences
praying for them all the time. They got
2 good start. They were launched on
the world with the benedictions of
Christian mother. They may track
Siberian SHOWS, they may plunge in
African jungles, they may fly to the
earth's end-they cannot go so far and
so fast but the prayers will keep up with
them.
stand before women to-day, who have
the eternal salvation of their husbands in
their right hand. On the marriage-day
you took an oath before men and angels
that you would be faithful and kind un-
til death did you part, and believe you
are going to keep that oath; but after
that parting at the door of the grave,
will it be an eternal separation? Is there
any such thing as an immortal marriage,
making the flowers that grow on the top
of the sepulchre brighter than the gar
lands which at the marriage banquet
flooded the air with aroma? Yes, stand
here as a priest of the most high God,
to proclaim the banns of an immortal
union for all those who join hands in
the grace of Christ. Owoman, is your
husband your father, your son, away
from God? The Lord demands their re-
demption at your hands. There are
prayers for you to offer, there are ex-
hortations for you to give, there are
examples for you to set, and | say now,
as Paul said to the Corinthian woman,
What knowest thou, 0 woman, but thou
canst save thy husband?"
A man was dying; and he said to his
wife: "Rebecca, you wouldn't let me
have family prayers; and you laughed
about all that, and you got me away into
worldliness; and now am going to die,
and my fate is sealed and you are the
cause of my ruin p o. woman, what
knowest thou but thou canst destroy thy
husband? Are there not some here who
have kindly influences at home? Are
there not some here who have wandered
far away from God, who can remember
the Christian influences in their early
home? Do not despise those influences,
my brother If you die without Christ,
what will you do with your mothers
prayers, with your wife's importu-
mites, with your sisters entreat-
les? What will you do with
the letters they used to write to you, with |
the memory of those days when they at
tended you so kindly in times of sick
ness? Oh, if there be just one strand
holding you from floating off on that |
dark sea, would just like, this morning,
to take hold of that strand and pull you
to the beach, For the sake of your
wife's God, for the sake of your mothers |
God, for the sake of your daughters |
God, for the sake of your sisters God,
come this day and be saved.
Lastly: wish to say that one of the |
specific rights of women is, through the
grace of Christ, finally to reach Heaven.
0, what multitude of women in Heaven
Mary, Christ's mother, in Heaven; Eliza
beth Fry in Heaven; Charlotte Elizabeth
in Heaven; the mother of Augustine in
Heaven; the Countess of Huntingdon
who sold her splendid jewels to build
~